| Discuss the statement: “The human brain works in a way that makes us unsuitable as witnesses in a trial” | 3 things to note here:
Weapons-focus
Leading questions
Timing
Weapons focus:
What we encode during a crime is important. If a weapon is present, most victims will divide most of their attention to it. This means that less attention will be placed on other details related to the event.
Leading questions:
Misinformation effect. Witnesses may tailor their response to how the questions are asked. They might even misremember details because of this.
Timing:
When we ask questions matters, as the quality gets wors and more fist-like over time. The longer we take to recall the memories , the more they can deteriode and fade. |
| Discuss the statement “If the conditions are right for it, human memory is reliable” | 2 things to note here:
Encoding specificity
Draw sketches
Encoding specificity:
If we ask questions while in the environment that the information as encoded, we see that there is a benefit to memory. Even just quing aspects of the scenario can be beneficial.
Draw sketches:
Sketches can potentially improve the recall for the scene of the crime. Cues from drawing the scene might trigger the recollection of some important information. |
| What is the “misinformation effect”? Find examples from laboratory experiments and from real life | The misinformation effect refers to the distortion of previous memories by post-event information. This could be influenced by other people as we saw in experiments from the lecture about implanting false memories, or it can simply be from your current mood. The basis of this idea is that memory is a reconstructive process.
Friends cracks phone on accident - no biggie. Friend steals your joke, now you remember accident and it feels like a biggie. Mood altered memory. |
| Describe a situation that carries a high risk of the formation of false memories. | There are many potential situations for this. For example; situations with high levels of stress, where someone feels vulnerable, or impressionable. Scenarios could include; therapy; eyewitness testimony, even from people talking to each other that don’t know the full scenario. Weapon-focus or leading questions… |
| What is the cognitive interview? | An interrogation technique. The key part of the cognitive interview stems from teh four instruction given by an interviewer:
Report everything
Mental reinstatement of context
Recalling events in a variety of different orders
Changing perspectives |
| What do we mean by “report everything” in a cognitive interview? | Give as full a description of what happens as possible. This is in contrast to the investigative interview that usually focuses on a select few yes or no questions, which can really limit what people end up saying about the event. |
| What do we mean by “mental reinstatement of context” in a cognitive interview? | Trying to get the witness to imagine themselves in the situation again might help with triggering relevant cues that might be associated with important memories for detailing the case. |
| What do we mean by “recalling events in a variety of different orders” in a cognitive interview? | This is an attempt to remove the influence of the misinformation effect where the current state of remembering has an influence on the memory for previous events. The goal is by switching the order of describing the scene you might eliminate the expercation that might come along with what is supposed to happen at the scene of crime from movies or shows a person has watched. |
| What is meant by “changing perspectives” in the cognitive interview? | What is meant by “changing perspectives” in the cognitive interview? |
